Question

The puffer is a container in which there is a liquid medicine
composed of three things: chemical substances (medical preparation), water
and oxygen.

When pressure is applied to the puffer, the medicine comes
out in the form of a mist. If the patient takes a deep breath in when
applying pressure to the puffer, this mist enters the airway (trachea), but
some of it remains in the pharynx, and a very small amount of it may enter
the oesophagus.

Some contemporary scholars are of the view that using a
puffer invalidates the fast. They said: Because the contents of the puffer
may reach the stomach via the mouth, so it breaks the fast.

But most contemporary scholars are of the view that using
this puffer does not break the fast, and this view is the correct one. They
quoted a number of things as evidence for this:

1.

The basic principle is that the fast remains valid, and this
fact cannot be altered except when there is certain proof. Whether part of
the mist from the puffer reaches the stomach is something uncertain: it may
enter the stomach or it may not, because the basic principle is that this
substance goes to the respiratory system, but some of it may enter the
stomach. With this uncertainty we cannot say that it invalidates the fast.
This is the answer to the evidence for the first opinion.

2.

Assuming that some of this medicine does actually enter the
stomach, it is forgiven, and does not invalidate the fast, by analogy with
rinsing the mouth and using the miswaak.

With regard to rinsing the mouth: when the fasting person
rinses his mouth, some of that water remains in his mouth, and some of that
water may go down to the stomach. Hence if he rinses his mouth with water in
which there is a radioactive substance, that radioactive substance will
appear in his stomach after a while, which confirms that some of the water
used for rinsing the mouth does go down into the stomach. But this part that
goes down into the stomach is a very small amount, which is overlooked in
sharee’ah. The ruling is that the fast is still valid if one rinses the
mouth. The amount of medicine from a puffer that reaches the stomach – if
any – is smaller than the amount of water that reaches the stomach when one
rinses the mouth, so it is more likely that it does not break the fast.

As for the siwaak, it contains a substance that dissolves in
the saliva and goes down into the pharynx, and then to the stomach. But
Islam overlooks this, and does not regard it as invalidating the fast,
because it is a small amount and is not intentional. Similarly the part that
may go down into the stomach from the puffer is small, and the patient does
not intend for it to enter the stomach, so it does not break the fast, by
analogy with the miswaak.

Thus the strength of the second view is apparent. This is the
view favoured by our contemporary scholars: Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz
(may Allaah have mercy on him), Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-‘Uthaymeen, Shaykh
‘Abd-Allaah ibn Jibreen, and the scholars of the Standing Committee. We have
quoted some of their fatwas concerning this in the answer to question no.
37650.

See: Majallat al-Fiqh al-Islami (vol. 10, in which
there are a number of articles about modern things that break the fast);
Muftiraat al-Siyaam al-Mu’aasirah, by Dr. Ahmad al-Khaleel, p. 33-38.